Q. We have been waiting for a while to find out who your coaching choice would be after you parted ways with Ivan Lendl. We now know it’s Amélie Mauresmo. Tell me how that came about.
ANDY MURRAY: It came about how it always does with coaches, really. I spoke to her a couple of times on the phone. I thought she was extremely calm on the phone. She listened very well, and we had a couple of good conversations on the phone. I met up with her in Paris before the tournament.
I chatted to her for about an hour and a half about a number of different things, obviously mainly about tennis and my team and how I like to work and what my goals were and stuff.
Yeah, we decided to give it a go together over the grass. Hopefully it will work out well.

Q. We have heard so many names of who you might have worked with and obviously just basically speculation, but when you were drawing up the possibilities of who it might be, why did you have Amélie on that list? Is she somebody that you’ve always followed and admired?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, what I did last time, last couple of times I have looked at coaches, I have spoken to Darren Cahill quite a lot, and I mentioned to him that, you know, I was thinking about, you know, possibly a female coach.
You know, I don’t know a lot of the females that were playing around, you know, the last sort of ten years, I didn’t know them unbelievably well. I know Clijsters and Henin, obviously Mauresmo a bit.
So I just spoke to him a little bit about those players. He thought that Amélie would be a good fit. We also came up with a few other names, as well, and then, yeah, after I spoke to her, yeah, I just had a good feeling about her.
Yeah, that was it.

Q. Can I ask, when you spoke to Darren and you said you were thinking about maybe a female coach, why was that? What was the thinking behind it? Was it something that you thought a female coach could bring that was different?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, I mean, for me, it doesn’t feel so different because obviously when I was growing up I had my mum working with me until I was sort of 17 years old. She came to a few tournaments with me when I didn’t have a coach when I was 16, 17, futures tournaments, US Open juniors and stuff, so I have always had a strong female influence in my career. I found that, you know, with my mum especially that she listened extremely well.
That was something that I felt, you know, right now that I needed, you know. I have started to listen to my body a lot more, because over the years you start to pick up some things. I think it’s important that the people that you work with respect and understand and listen, you know, to how you’re feeling as well because you can’t just be pushed extremely hard every single day. I need to pick my moments during the year where I really go for it in training.
Yeah, that was one of the reasons. But, yeah, for me, it didn’t feel like, you know, a strange thing to do just because, you know, I grew up with a female coach.

Q. Of course it isn’t a strange thing at all. I suppose the only reason we are talking about it is because it hasn’t happened very much at the very top level of the game. What has the reaction been so far? You have been here at Queen’s a couple of hours. Have you spoken to other players at all?
ANDY MURRAY: Well, a couple of people have come up to me and sort of asked, because obviously over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of different names of people, didn’t know if it was true, didn’t know if it was a joke, if it was serious, or people were just coming and asking me if it was true or not. I told them that it was.
Yeah, from other players’ point of view, I don’t really care whether they think it’s a good or bad appointment. It’s whether it works well for me and my team, and hopefully it will be a good move for my career.

Q. I suppose the one logistical difference is a female coach can’t come in the locker room. Is that going to matter at all?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, obviously you can’t sit down and chat in there, but there’s enough places where you can chat. The players lounge here is pretty large.
You know, normally I speak about tactics. Sometimes I do it the night before my matches, and then sometimes I do it, you know, sort of 20, 30 minutes before I go on court when I’m normally in the gym, anyway.
Yeah, I don’t see any problems in that respect.

Q. Is this at the moment just for the grass court season or is this a long‑term appointment?
ANDY MURRAY: No, it’s just for the grass court season just now. I think, you know, with any sort of coaching appointment, there’s always a period where you need to try‑‑ with Ivan, for example, it just happened it was in the offseason so I had time to talk to him, I had time to go on court and spend a bit of time on court with him and see, but, you know, I felt like I needed some extra advice over this period.
Yeah, it seemed like, you know, a good time to try and I think get an even better idea than just trying in the offseason, because obviously it’s quite a high‑pressure situation in the next few weeks. I can get a good idea if it will work long‑term or not.

Q. She obviously being a Wimbledon champion knows what you will go through as one yourself. What do you hope that she will bring over this next few weeks?
ANDY MURRAY: I mean, I think there is a lot of things that she can bring. I wouldn’t have thought that it would be incredibly full on, because we will just be getting to know each other.
You know, the French Open was decent for me, as well, so I’d expect her to observe quite a lot over the first little while. Yeah, she obviously knows what it’s like to play a home slam. Being French, she played the French Open a lot of times. I think she was quite open and struggled a bit with the pressure.
That can also help. Someone that’s been through those experiences themselves maybe would have handled things differently.
I’m not sure, but it’s good to have someone to talk to about those things and those feelings, and obviously, you know, she’s won Wimbledon before herself and it will be interesting.

Q. When you come here and you know that Wimbledon is now just a few weeks away, is it pretty exciting?
ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, it’s very exciting. It’s a period of the year I’ll always look forward to. I’m not just saying this, but literally all the players, when they come on the grass, everyone seems to be happy.
Towards the end of the clay court season everyone seems quite tired and a bit done, you know, just mentally fatigued. But then when you see everyone on the grass, everyone is smiling, everyone is happy, you know. Thankfully the sun is out just now. It’s a great period of the year. I just wish it was a bit longer.

17 Comments for Andy Murray Explains Why He Hired Amelie Mauresmo As His New Coach

roy Says:

Andy Murray explains the process of hiring a WTA mental midget for a coach on the ATP tour:

”I was raised by a feminist mother. Mauresmo is both a womyn and a lesbian. It seemed the logical choice after Ivan, and clearly the progressive one. The men’s tour needs more womyn-lesbian diversity. Unfortunately Amelie isn’t non-white. I would have preferred to smash the straight white male dominance of the ATP tour with a marxist triple threat like that … but social progress is a slow process. I mean, look, the English founding stock only just became minorities in London. It’s sickening to think it took this long for Whites to be elbowed out of the capital of our kingdom. Just goes to show how hard it is to change old-fashioned prejudices, like believing the cities your people built from the ground up actually belong to your people. You see this kind of thing in Asia, and all over the non-white world, of course. Trying to protect your territories and identity and culture and all that. But they’re oppressed by the historical process so it’s different. I just pray one day Wimbledon will be contested by amorphous brown, rootless, sexless creatures all competing in the same draw. And that the uniforms aren’t white, but mud colour. For equality, you know?”

And yet my humourous & relatively harmless ribbing of Fedal fans never saw the light of day here(although quite devastating it has to be said)?
Still, If tennis-x is getting a little less moderated, I applaud it.
Even if it means the occasional invasion of the tin foil hat freeper brigade, it really was a little too strict before.
As long as the other side has the opportunity to respond of course.
It’s always best to get these things out in the open I feel, so we know where we are.
Light is the best disinfectant after all.
No?

this choice of coach doesn’t make much sense. Women’s tennis is very different from men’s. I am not sure how much she can help Andy. I think Andy’s day’s at the top are over (top5 I mean, he never reached No. 1, never will). Somehow he beat a tired old Fed to wim Wimbledon, and the “choker” djoker to win the USO. 5-15 against Nadal, with a two handed backhand, AND being one year younger – that speaks a lot.

Not as much as you speak on the subject
Full inaccuracies too.
He beat the world number one for Wimbledon and the US (both times Djokovic)oh goat`expert`.
Novak did not `choke` either.
Oh and he already is a top 5 player again.
So there goes that fateful prediction rather quickly.
PS, It’s just the beginning :)

“Women’s tennis is very different from men’s. I am not sure how much she can help Andy.”

That just shows a lack of imagination and understanding of the coaching process. How come male coaches have been successful in helping women players? Carlos Rodriguez with Henin and Li na for example. I htink you should focus on goats.

I think Andy could help her make a comeback……but I am not sure she can do anything for him…..just don’t see it happening. Andy is smiling more, and I like that. He was acting a lot more relaxed in the matches leading up to the semis, but then Rafa can unrelax an opponent very quickly. Seems to me Andy is already a set down body language wise when he faces Rafa….on clay, that is……jmo.

roy is perfectly serious. He has regularly posted similar sexist trash here, in the past.

Whatever Andy’s motives (and I think an earlier generation of psychoanalytically minded novelists could have a field day with him, to be truthful…), there’s nothing so shocking about this. The only question is, can she help him play better? Beyond that, who cares.